Democratic Support for Amnesty Declines

NEW YORK CITY, New York — Fewer than half of Democrat voters say an amnesty for younger illegal aliens should be “a top priority,” despite much advocacy by open-borders organizations and by Senate and House Democrats.

The new poll by Morning Consult and Politico reveals that even among Democrat voters, a no-strings amnesty for illegals — including the roughly 690,000 illegal on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program remains — questionable, and is drifting down.

The declining enthusiasm for granting those protections was shared by partisans of all stripes. Democrats (from 53 percent to 44 percent) and Republicans (from 28 percent to 19 percent) both registered 9-point drops over the time frame, while enthusiasm among independents dropped 12 points, from 35 percent to 23 percent.

The apparent high score of 44 percent is also modest. In matched questions, 43 percent of Democrats said “passing a healthcare bill” should be a top priority, and 59 percent of Democrats said a top priority should be “Investigating some of President Trumps campaign officials for alleged connections or contacts with the Russian government.” Thirty-five percent of Democrats said “Reforming entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security” should be a top priority, and 34 percent said “Passing an infrastructure spending bill” should be a top priority.

For Republican voters, support for a DACA amnesty has dropped nine points from September as well, with just 19 percent of GOP respondents saying giving illegal aliens permanent residence in the U.S. should be a top priority.

For Independents, the support for prioritizing DACA amnesty for illegal aliens dropped the largest. In September, 35 percent of Independent voters said DACA amnesty should be a priority. Today, only 23 percent of Independents want a prioritized amnesty.

The poll also showed that 15 percent of the 1,991 respondents said they did not wish to respond. That absenteeism suggests some hidden opposition to an amnesty.

The question asked was:

How important of a priority should each of the following be for Congress? …

Passing a bill that grants young people who were brought to the United States illegally when they were children, often with their parents, protection from deportation

The question does not describe the illegals as illegals and does not mention amnesty or citizenship, but it also does not describe them using the Democrats’ favored term, “dreamers.”

Also, the poll did not describe the scale of the amnesty — roughly three million illegals — nor the huge cost, nor the long-term impact of chain migration. In any election campaign, voters are going to get both sets of information, likely changing public attitudes.

While pushing multiple amnesty plans in the House and Senate, Democratic lawmakers — especially those in the GOP — have ignored Trump’s popular immigration principles, which include:

Construction of a border wall

Deporting unaccompanied alien children who are not at-risk in their native country

Enacting a merit-based legal immigration where only qualified immigrants can enter the U.S.

Unlike an amnesty for illegal aliens, many of Trump’s pro-American reforms are actually popular with the American people.

A Pulse Opinion Research poll in August, though, showed that Americans believe the second-most important aspect to stemming the flow of illegal immigration was constructing a border wall on the southern border.

That same poll found that 68 percent of Americans support mandatory E-Verify, 53 percent say stopping employers from hiring illegal aliens was the most important component to ending illegal immigration, and 54 percent said they wanted to see overall legal immigration levels reduced.

Since DACA’s inception, more than 2,100 DACA recipients saw their protected status revoked for being involved in gang activity or suspected/convicted of a felony. Due to a loophole in the DACA program, more than 39,000 illegal aliens have been able to obtain Green Cards and more than 1,000 naturalized.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.